LAHORE, Aug 7: PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif on Thursday challenged the orders of an anti-terrorism court that declared him a proclaimed offender in a murder case.

Mr Shahbaz moved an application through his counsel Manzoor Ahmad Malik, asking the court to recall its July 17 orders that declared him a proclaimed offender for his failure to stand trial on charges of directing the police to kill five youths in a staged encounter in April 1998. The court fixed Aug 22 for arguments on the application.

In a written message to the court on the last date of hearing, Mr Sharif had requested the court to summon him through the Embassy of Pakistan in the US. The court refused to entertain his request, ruling that it had not been made through a counsel.

Mr Malik had presented a faxed memo of appearance to the court, which was signed by Mr Shahbaz and authorized the former to plead the case. The counsel submitted that the original power of attorney had been sent to the Pakistan embassy in the US for attestation and would reach Pakistan shortly. When the court questioned validity of the memo, Mr Malik claimed that he was a practising lawyer of the Supreme Court and his statement regarding the receipt of a faxed memo signed by his counsel should not be doubted.

While touching on merits of the prayer, the counsel submitted that it was a known fact that the accused had been exiled to Saudi Arabia by the previous military regime in Dec 2000, and he moved to the US for medical treatment. He wondered as to how the summons could have been served on Mr Shahbaz within Pakistan.

“The report submitted by the process-server that my client has absconded is false as the summons were not issued to him through the embassy in the US or Saudi Arabia. It would be against natural justice that he be declared an absconder under Section 87 of the CrPC since he had neither concealed himself from the operation of law nor did he flee from the country.”

He further claimed that the accused had never received any notice or summons, and the orders declaring him an absconder were liable to be recalled. He reiterated his client’s consent to stand trial provided he was summoned through Pakistan’s embassy in the US.

Advocate Imtiaz Kaifi, who was assisting the senior counsel, pointed out that the current residential address of Shahbaz Sharif was not mentioned in the report of process-server, on the basis of which the court had declared him a proclaimed offender. The phrase “former Punjab chief minister” had been written in the column of residential address in the report.

Mr Kaifi contended that for the sake of clarity and compliance with legal requirements, complete current residential address or at least the name of the city in which Mr Shahbaz was currently residing, should have been mentioned in the report. The ambiguous phrase was not even questioned by the court while declaring him an absconder.

The counsel for complainant, Aftab Ahmad Bajwa, argued that the application was not maintainable as the counsel for Mr Sharif had not submitted his power of attorney and could not be allowed to make any submission till the filing of that document. The court, however, ruled that it would examine the application on the next date of hearing and hear the two parties at length.

Former DSP Umar Virk, SI Lala Roshan, ASIs Zulfiqar Ahmad, Mohammad Manzoor and Shamshad Ahmad and former SHO Babar Ashraf Ansari —- declared a proclaimed offender —- are also nominated in this case. Allegedly, the accused police officials shot dead five youths, Salahudin, Waseem, Haider, Rauf and Wakeel, in a staged encounter in Sabzazar on April 27, 1998. According to the FIR lodged on the orders of the Lahore High Court, the encounter was staged on the orders of the then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, who, the complainant Saeed Salahudin alleged, used extra-judicial killings to control crime.